★★★★✰ The recording reveals how unusual the choreography is, as it was in 1965... Dancers in pointe shoes have to adapt to flexed feet, flat-footed parallel positions, torsos bent forward, elbows and wrists held at angles.
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With one common factor, music by Igor Stravinsky, Scottish Ballet (SB) deliver two excellent and very contrasting performances which were filmed at the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh in 2017.
★★★★★ Though the concert was a treat, could the Royal Opera House please try raising our spirits in future streamings, and give the Royal Ballet the prominence it deserves.
★★★★★ If you want an antidote to any miserable lockdown mood, La Fille mal gardée cannot fail to lift your spirits and allow you to marvel at some really first-rate dancing.
★★★✰✰ Giselle was the first full-length classical ballet that Arthur Mitchell's company of black American dancers would perform. He thought there would be no point in their pretending to be Rhineland peasants, so decided to set the 19th century ballet in pre-Civil War Louisiana.
The Royal Ballet's Vadim Muntagirov talks about making the most of lockdown and getting ready to dance again for the Royal Opera House's Live from Covent Garden transmission on Saturday night (20 June 2020), where he is dancing Ashton's seldom-seen "Dance of the Blessed Spirits"...
★★★✰✰ The first concert was not much of a consolation for all that we have lost. So far, the Royal Ballet appears a token add-on to the opera's contributions...
★★★★★ Dormeshia’s And Still You Must Swing is the first online dance that made me want to write about it. I knew it would be good...
Marianela Núñez talks about one of her favourite ballets, "La Fille mal gardée", and life under lockdown, which for Marianela has been in Argentina. "La Fille mal gardee", one of the most loved works in the Royal Ballet repertoire, streams this Friday, 12 June, from 19:00 BST
★★★★✰ Cathy Marston has achieved much in bringing the life of Jacqueline du Pré to the ballet stage and perhaps one of the things that becomes even clearer with repeated viewings, is that the music and the dance are inextricably linked.
The six films in the 40th anniversary celebration provide tantalising glimpses of Amici's considerable back catalogue, which includes short works as well as major productions...
"If you missed 'Men at the Barre - Inside the Royal Ballet': a look behind the scenes at the male ballet dancers in the company, then do take the time to catch up on BBC iPlayer."
★★★✰✰ I do wonder why ENB chose this particular (acceptable but sometimes subdued) recording to stream, when we are all suffering from live performance withdrawal symptoms and this company so often produces spectacular performances, sending audiences away in raptures.
Gallery by Foteini Christofilopoulou...
★★★★✰ Osipova inhabits the role of Anna Anderson with gruelling sincerity. She appears deranged from the beginning with close-up camera angles revealing a depth of despair that is tremendously affecting.
★★★✰✰ No lockdown for Annabelle Lopez Ochoa who has just choreographed "Where do the birds go?" over five Zoom sessions with Norwegian National Ballet's Francois Rousseau and Julie Gardette in their Oslo living room...
★★★★✰ It doesn’t get much steamier than Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man, the third of his productions to be presented and screened on Sky Arts during lockdown.
★★★★✰ Performances across the board are stupendous, reminding us that interpretations evolve and change, and do not disappoint.
Kenneth MacMillan's Mayerling in new Jürgen Rose designs - "I am not reviewing the recording so much as commenting on the differences between Stuttgart Ballet's 2019 production and the Royal Ballet's version that dates back to the ballet's premiere in 1978..."
Feature – Ashton Rediscovered Masterclass: Voices of Spring, coached by Merle Park and Wayne Eagling
For anyone with an interest in the machinations of bringing a difficult pas de deux to performance standard, this was an experience to cherish.